We Are All Interconnected: A Qualitative Study of Embodied Connectedness Through MDMA Use

Assee, Chrystal (2026). We Are All Interconnected: A Qualitative Study of Embodied Connectedness Through MDMA Use. Mémoire. Gatineau, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Département de travail social, 151 p.

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Résumé

This qualitative study investigates the subjective experience of connectedness among adults who have used MDMA in non-clinical, social contexts. Amid growing cultural concern around social disconnection, the research explores how MDMA-facilitated altered states may reveal or reawaken felt forms of relational presence. Using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2019), the study is informed by phenomenological and embodied frameworks, particularly Merleau-Ponty’s concept of the lived body, Fuchs’s theory of intercorporeality, and Massumi’s notion of affect as pre-reflective intensity.
Nine adults with diverse histories of self-reported recreational MDMA use participated in semi-structured interviews. The analysis identified three overlapping domains of connection to: self, others, and the world. These were not experienced as separate categories but as entangled, somatically felt processes. Participants described connection as something revealed, not induced, a quality of being temporarily accessible through softening of defenses, emotional resonance, and embodied presence.
Rather than framing MDMA as a therapeutic tool or treatment mechanism, the study positions it as a relational amplifier, a substance that enables access to connection already within reach but often obscured by disconnection, trauma, or social conditioning.
This work contributes to psychedelic studies by foregrounding non-clinical, first-person experiences, and expands understandings of healing by emphasizing embodied safety, affective presence, and co-regulation. It holds implications for social work, trauma-informed care, and relational practice, suggesting that connectedness is not a secondary benefit but a central condition for healing.

Type de document:	Thèse (Mémoire)
Directeur de mémoire/thèse:	Pagé, Genevieve
Co-directeurs de mémoire/thèse:	Greenman, Paul Samuel
Départements et école, unités de recherche et services:	Travail social
Date de dépôt:	01 avr. 2026 12:05
Dernière modification:	01 avr. 2026 12:05
URI:	https://di.uqo.ca/id/eprint/1905

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